In a wireless communication system, in order to enable a terminal to measure downlink channel state information (Channel State Information, CSI for short), a base station needs to send a certain reference signal (Reference Signal, RS for short) to a terminal within a coverage area of the base station for measuring the downlink channel state information. At this moment, the base station needs to send reference signal configuration information which identifies the reference signal to the terminal, such that the terminal is able to detect the downlink channel state information according to the reference signal. In the prior art, a base station may include multiple transmission points (Transmission Point, TP for short), each of which may be configured with multiple antenna ports. Reference signal configuration information is sent through an antenna port to a terminal.
In the prior art, a base station can only send a terminal configuration information of a reference signal which is sent by antenna port(s) identified by a designated number of ports (Number of ports, for example, 1, 2, 4 or 8). That is to say, the base station can only configure a designated number of ports, thereby lowering the flexibility and efficiency of the configuration of antenna ports of the base station.